Which disaster recovery/emergency management plan testing type
below is considered the most cost-effective and efficient way to identify
areas of overlap in the plan before conducting more demanding training
exercises?

A.
Evacuation drill

B.
Table-top exercise test

C.
Full-scale exercise

D.
Walk-through drill

Explanation:
In a table-top exercise, members of the emergency management
group meet in a conference room setting to discuss their responsibilities
and how they would react to emergency scenarios. Disaster
recovery/emergency management plan testing scenarios have several
levels, and can be called different things. The primary hierarchy
of disaster/emergency testing plan types is shown below.
Checklist review. Plan is distributed and reviewed by business
units for its thoroughness and effectiveness.
Table-top exercise or structured walk-through test. Members of
the emergency management group meet in a conference room
setting to discuss their responsibilities and how they would
react to emergency scenarios by stepping through the plan.
Walk-through drill or simulation test. The emergency management
group and response teams actually perform their emergency
response functions by walking through the test, without
actually initiating recovery procedures. More thorough than the
table-top exercise.
Functional drills. Test specific functions such as medical
response, emergency notifications, warning and communications
procedures, and equipment, although not necessarily all
at once. Also includes evacuation drills, where personnel walk
the evacuation route to a designated area where procedures for

accounting for the personnel are tested.
Parallel test or full-scale exercise. A real-life emergency situation
is simulated as closely as possible. Involves all of the participants
that would be responding to the real emergency, including
community and external organizations. The test may
involve ceasing some real production processing.
Source: Emergency Management Guide for Business and Industry,
Federal Emergency Management Agency, August 1998 and
Computer Security Basics, by Deborah Russell and G.T. Gangemi, Sr.
(OReilly, 1992).